The venture will develop NBI's lead molecule — NBI 29 — for prostate cancer towards FDA approval. NBI is 5% owned by University of Missouri, Colombia.

The University of Missouri is one of the six labs in the US that are part of the NIH driven 'Alliance for Nanotechnology in Cancer'. NBI founders Kattesh Katti and Raghuraman Kannan would drive NBI-29's development through the new JV.

NBI-29 is a radioactive gold-based nanoparticle that is administered as a Brachytherapeutic agent. It has shown excellent tumour fighting properties in early studies against prostate cancer (PCA). The PCA market is projected to touch $7.7 billion by 2015. Vimal Kumar,MD, Shasun, said, "The tie-up with NBI and thereby with the University of Missouri at Colombia puts us in a dominant position in the vast expanding and exciting area of nanomedicine. We would have the best minds in nanomedicine working for us and are confident of creating significant intellectual property with wide-ranging applications."